Nov 12 Giving Gifts with Meaning & A JORD Watch Review

My husband and I have a tradition that started on our wedding day: we give each other watches for important milestones in our lives. On that day, I gifted him with a beautiful opal-faced, self-winding, skeleton-backed Bulova that he still loves and wears for “fancier occasions”. For the birth of our first baby, he received another watch while we were babymooning in Hawaii. Then another for our middle child and another for our youngest. He’s also received them for milestone birthdays and promotions and he’s gifted me with several for the same occasions. I just love the idea of a timepiece to mark a significant event and the idea of passing them on to our kids when the time comes.

I think he's grown a bit addicted though, and now feels that he needs a different watch for every pair of shoes (and let me tell you, I'm pretty sure the man owns more shoes than I do!); it’s just as much about feeling put together and looking sharp for him as it is anything else. So, when I was contacted by JORD to review one of their beautiful wood watches, I had little hesitation. Then, when I learned that they were a small business (with less than 50 employees) based out of St. Louis, I was hooked.

JORD (pronounced YOAD, like TOAD) is a Swedish word meaning “earth, soil, or land”, which really is a perfect fit for the company’s wooden, eco-friendly products. JORD was founded in 2013 by two brothers who grew up in St. Louis and have subsequently named every watch after the city’s streets or house numbers of the homes they grew up in. Their website claims that the company is “focused on creating timepieces that are modeled after a modern lifestyle. [They] value sustainability, efficiency, and experiential living…The value of a watch is not in being able to tell how much time has passed, but in being aware of the need to make that time count. Moments are bigger than minutes and your watch should tell more than time”. If that doesn’t speak straight to this mama’s heart, I don’t know what will. Small business, in-tune with their local community, and a philosophy that speaks to me…awesome, right?

Okay, so let’s take a look at what JORD has to offer. All JORD wood watches:

-range in price from $139-$429 and are hand-crafted with natural acacia, bamboo, ebony, golden camphor, koa, kosso, maple, olive, purpleheart, rosewood, sandalwood, walnut, or zebrawood that is responsibly harvested from all around the world.

-not treated with toxic chemicals to dye, stain, or protect the wood.

-come in a keepsake wooden watch box with cleaning cloth, JORD Preserve (a finishing oil to protect the wood), and any extra links you had removed for sizing.

-are engravable and the service is offered by JORD.

-come with a one-year warranty.

-are splash proof, but should not be submerged in water.

In addition, many of JORD’s watches are made with a sapphire crystal glass which is colorless, optically clear, and second only to diamond as the hardest and most scratch resistant material on earth.

1) Cassia in walnut and vintage rose 2) Cora in zebrawood and turquoise 3) Frankie in zebrawood and champagne

The watch that I received was the Frankie in Koa and Ash. JORD was kind enough to pre-size it for me so it came ready-to-wear, straight out of the beautiful box. And that BOX! That thing could be a gift in itself, honestly. It has a drawer at the bottom for storing extra links and preserving oil and the lid has a magnetic closure. My daughter loves to collect boxes and fill them with her little treasures, so this will be one that I’ll have to keep up out of her reach. Ha!

The Frankie was actually not my first choice of watch, but I am so glad that it’s the one that was sent. I’ve learned in the time that I’ve had my watch that the ash gray face and medium, cool wood tone goes with just about anything I happen to throw on in the morning. The black clasp and crown (the little knob on the side that’s used for setting the watch) keep it feeling nice and casual, which let’s face it, is just how this busy mama is dressed most days! I also love the size of the face; it’s a bit larger than my other watches and I think it gives a more modern feel.

So what do you guys think? I really and truly love this wood watch and it has been a pleasure working with the JORD team over the past couple of weeks. I am certain that the next watch purchased for my husband will be a JORD (because I’m keeping the Frankie for myself, thank you very much!) and I have a 25% OFF PROMO CODE to share with YOU for your holiday gifting needs as well. Just enter your name and email and the code will be sent to you straight away. The code is valid through December 19th, which is just perfect for receiving your order before the big day!

Does your family have traditions for giving meaningful gifts? How do you go about it? If you decide to try one of these gorgeous timepieces for the holidays this year, be sure to let me know which one you go with and I’d love to hear your thoughts once it arrives as well!

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